CHIEFTESS HETHOR ETIOS OF ETIOS NATION
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CHIEFTESS HETHOR ETIOS
Hethor rules the Etios Nation, also known as the "Brute Kingdom". Long ago, an elven family came into power and ruled Matuzu Kingdom. This family began a fae supremacist movement that spanned many generations. This movement was neutral towards commoners, but gaians were deemed lowly beasts fit for nothing more than slavery. Hundreds, then thousands, then millions of gaians found themselves fleeing south. This event was called the “The Gaian Exodus”.
Minotaurs, centaurs, and all the other gaians were quick to band together, using their natural size, strength, and strong herd mentality to defend themselves from Matuzu's slavers. Eventually this elven family fell out of power and gaians were once again free in Matuzu lands, but by this time the damage had been done. Etios Nation had grown into a powerful force all its own, a sanctuary for gaians that still holds a bitter grudge against Matuzu, as well as fae and commoners in general.
Chieftess Hethor stubbornly upholds the ways of her ancestors, believing her peoples' way of life should remain simple and natural. She agrees to uphold the Nymph Pact, a global treaty which limits industrialization in order to protect the Spirit of Gaia.
OVERVIEW
The people of Etios Kingdom live the same simple lives of their ancestors and the ancestors before them. Technology has barely advanced here, but it hasn't had to, as the kingdom's entire population is made up of gaians. Gaians are known to be much larger and stronger than fae and commoners. It's said that one centaur soldier is worth 5 human soldiers on the battlefield, so although they may fight their battles with spears and stones, the Etios military is still quite capable of defending its nation.
Much of Etios' land is dedicated to farming. Its architecture is simplistic and does not stand particularly tall. Its greatest cities would not impress a citizen of a more advanced kingdom, but Etios' true power comes not from its technology or structures, but rather from its people.
The peoples' way of life is very compatible with the Nymph Pact, and so this kingdom does not suffer attacks from nymphs. However, their large farming operations and coastal location creates a lot of sewage runoff into the ocean, which provokes attacks from the Aquatic Alliance. Etios is occasionally hassled by Matuzu Kingdom forces as well.
Fae are not permitted within Etios' borders at all, not even as slaves. Commoners are permitted but face heavy restrictions. They must pay higher taxes and cannot legally marry a gaian, for example. Meanwhile, gaians are automatically accepted as citizens and granted full rights of the kingdom.
HETHOR'S POLICIES
-" Our land will be a sanctuary for all gaiankind, and all those who step their behooved feet across this border will be welcomed as one of the herd. But there is no place for fae here, as they have shown their true colors in the past. They think us lowly like beasts of burden. My people will not suffer their oppression again so long as this kingdom stands!"
-"Perhaps the commoners have not wronged us as the fae have, and perhaps they too have suffered from the old regime. But they did not suffer as we have, and let's not pretend they did not stand idly by while we were chained and mistreated! They are liars, deceivers by nature. However, they are also victims in their own way. Let us welcome commoner peoples under our own conditions, for this is still--and always will be--a land for gaians."
-"Our ancestors thrived under a simple way of life and so too shall we. We hear how commoners in the east have grown beyond their means, poisoned their own land and made themselves melancholy with lack of purpose. That is not the way of our people. We shall not industrialize. We gaians are stronger and more reliable than any metal or machine."
-"Magic is a crutch for the fae. Their peoples are weak and lazy, and so they depend on magic in every aspect of their lives. Citizens of Etios Kingdom are free to practice the arcane arts if they desire, but its use should be carefully regulated so that we do not become dependent upon it like our former oppressors."
-"I understand the Aquarian Alliance takes issue with the fertilizer running into their waters. However, these waters that line our coasts are property of Etios Nation. Aquarian or not, the Alliance is still a fae-ruled nation and I will not honor a single demand from them. They may move to other waters, or they can discuss it with our military."
ETIOS ROYAL FAMILY
CHIEFTESS HETHOR
Hethor's ancient ancestors lived peacefully in the Blue Valley until they were enslaved by the Evangelites. They fled south to Yerim-Mor Kingdom, where they were enslaved by the Cult of the Crescent. Those who managed to escape fled further south to Matuzu Kingdom, where they were enslaved by the fae supremacist movement. Hethor's ancestors made their final move to Etios Nation, the Great Kingdom she now leads. She honors them by making freedom, independence, and tradition the focus of her campaign.
Hethor believes that fae have no place in Etios Nation, and commoners should only be welcome as visitors, not as citizens. She operates on the “gaians first” principle, offering instant citizenship to all gaian immigrants. As a Sylvanist, Hethor reveres nature and nymphs. She embraces a stone age lifestyle and rejects more advanced technologies. She practices Etiosi tradition in every aspect of her life, including its traditional marriage customs. She currently has 26 husbands and 10 children, after the deaths of 2 husbands and 1 child.
Hethor frequently rants about foreigners, particularly Matuzans, Evangelites, and Zareenites. She is infamous for solving conflicts with brute force, even in her personal life. She has punched, thrown, and headbutted many foreign nobles she disagreed with. Her brutish tendencies lead foreigners to believe she's nothing more than a dumb, violent barbarian. However, Hethor has proven to be a competent and passionate ruler, unafraid to get her hands dirty to accomplish her goals. Her love for her nation is genuine, and her approval rating among Etiosi citizens has always been positive.
Hethor wants Etios Nation to remain a stone age sanctuary for gaians and nymphs, and remain independent from Matuzu Kingdom forever.
CHIEF DENU
Denu is one of Hethor's 26 husbands, her 2nd to be exact. His ancestors were forced to leave Matuzu Kingdom during the Gaian Exodus, and he shares the same bitterness towards Matuzans and fae as Hethor does. When Hethor was elected High Chieftess of Etios, she originally appointed her 1st husband, Abuka, as her chief. But Denu challenged him in combat for the position and won, forcing Hethor to choose him instead, as dictated by Etiosi custom. Abuka succumbed to his injuries and died, and his son was robbed of his title as prince.
Denu immediately used his authority as chief to appoint his half-brother, Boga, as Etios Nation's top military general. Boga then promised Abuka's son an elite position in his battalion when he came of age, as a consolation for losing his father. When that time came, Abuka's son was reportedly killed in battle, officially ending Abuka's bloodline.
Though Hethor was deeply upset with Denu for challenging her first husband's authority, she could not show it, for to do so would disrespect her own culture's tradition. Her relationship with him has been rather icy ever since. Meanwhile Denu is pleased with his position as chief, and proud to call his two children “prince” and “princess” of Etios Nation. He claims he challenged Abuka for the good of the nation, as he did not believe Abuka would be a good leader and his people deserved better. However, Denu had a longstanding rivalry with him before that, and a history of jealousy and hostility towards Hethor's other husbands as well. His history leads many to believe he used the combat challenge as an excuse to murder Abuka, and that the death of Abuka's son was no accident either.
As a chief, Denu accomplishes very little. He spends most of his time doing leisure activities and bullying Hethor's other husbands. He is loving towards his own children, but ornery towards the others. He adores Hethor, and he cannot understand why she's so distant with him since he challenged Abuka. After all, it was nothing personal…it's just Etiosi tradition, and Hethor loves tradition!
GENERAL BOGA
Boga is Denu's half-brother and top general of the Etiosi military. Boga and Denu have been best friends since childhood, always there to pull the other out of a jam. After Denu killed Hethor's first husband, Abuka, he confided in Boga and told him he feared the boy might try to avenge his father one day. Boga offered Abuka's son an elite position in his battalion when he came of age, promising wealth and glory. Less than a month later, that battalion was ambushed by enemy forces and Abuka's son was killed. Given the circumstances, some believe this was no accident, and that Boga sent the young man to his death as a favor to Denu.
Boga is a cold and calculating soldier, and some would say he enjoys the thrill of the kill. There is nothing he hates more than elves, except perhaps Matuzan elves. He is a famously effective general who has successfully managed to reclaim land from the Matuzans during his campaign. He is well-respected as one of the top authorities in Etios Nation, second only to Chieftess Hethor and Chief Denu themselves.
Hethor did not take the news of her son's death well. She traveled to Boga's barracks to beat him for allowing her son to die under his watch, but she was so intoxicated by the time she arrived, she ended up ranting to him about Denu instead. Boga comforted the chieftess, but was not prepared for her to become lustful towards him. Though he did not want to betray Denu or his own wives, he felt he did not have the authority to say “no” to the High Chieftess, and so he accepted her advances in fear of losing his job. Many months later, his illegitimate son was born. The boy's was named Thetos, and he looked too much like Boga to deny his parentage, so Hethor declared him a stillborn and secretly sent him to live a peasant’s life in a foreign land.
Boga knows Thetos is still alive, but not where he was sent. He wishes to find him, if only to blackmail Hethor with living proof of her infidelity, because he knows no one will believe him otherwise. Using Thetos as leverage, he believes he can turn Hethor into his puppet and rule Etios Nation from the shadows. He's been hiring mercenaries to track the boy down since his birth, but hasn't found him yet.
PRINCE KEATTO
Keatto is Denu's first child and Hethor's second. Though he has never worked a day in his life, he has ever had to, as he married young and now has a large harem of hard-working wives to support him. His status as prince lured many of those wives into his clutches with no effort on his part, but many more were drawn in by his big muscles and bigger horns. Keatto's father once told him, “Work hard til you get enough wives, then you can play hard til the gods call you home”. Keatto took that advice to heart, and now he is his father's pride and joy.
Keatto has 13 wives so far, with nineteen children and counting. He leaves all of the child-rearing and bacon-bringing to his wives while he spends most of his time doing leisurely activities with his father and friends. Unlike Denu, Hethor has little pride in Keatto. She berates him every chance she gets for being “lazy”, “vain”, and “dumb”. Whenever her criticisms get him down, he just seeks his father for reassurance that he can do no wrong.
Denu knows he's not the spring chicken he was in his youth, and his throne can be usurped by Hethor's other husbands at any time if they can defeat him in ritual combat. However, by Etios custom, he may choose one of his blood-related children to fight on his behalf. Most of Hethor's husbands are past their prime, and though they would love nothing more than to overthrow Denu, they are unwilling to challenge a young, strong opponent like Keatto. Denu maintains a good relationship with Keatto, because this boy is the only thing protecting him from meeting Abuka's fate.
PRINCESS NADUNA
Naduna is Denu's second child and Hethor's fourth. Although she is a pampered, wealthy princess, Naduna yearns for a less sheltered lifestyle. She is intrigued by “freebillies”, satyrs who reject Etiosi citizenship for the freedom to live uninhibited lives in its nature preserves. Freebillies do not own land or pay taxes, and they are not eligible to use Etiosi civic services such as hospitals or police. They answer to no authority, surviving only on their own resourcefulness.
Naduna's parents forbid her from interacting with freebillies, but that didn't stop her from sneaking into their territory and reveling with them anyway. On one occasion, Naduna went missing for 2 days and her parents feared the worst. In reality, she had simply binged on drugs and alcohol and lost track of time. But by the time she came back to her senses, her parents personally raided the freebilly preserve to find her, dragging the Etiosi army in tow. Their soldiers violently combed the forest, roughing up random satyrs and nymphs in search of their princess.
They eventually found her unharmed, but the incident soured the already strained relations between freebillies and the Etiosi government. Now Naduna is under constant surveillance by bodyguards, ensuring that she does not roam into the freebilly preserve again. She longs to escape their watchful eyes and find the dashing satyr she fell in love with during her adventure. She cannot go to him, so she has been trying to find someone who can bring him to her. The problem is finding mercenaries who aren't already working for her parents…
KOBI
Hethor's 4th husband was a rather old minotaur named Kob. Unfortunately their marriage was short-lived, for Kob suffered a fatal heart attack while making love to her on their wedding night. Hethor mourned his death, then later rejoiced at the gift he left in her womb. This gift was her third child, who she named Kobi to honor his memory.
Hethor wishes Kobi was more like her father, but it seems she does not share his militant, nationalistic ways. In fact, Kobi drives her family crazy with her rebellious views, loudly proclaiming herself a Reunifier. The Reunifiers are a political party which fights for the reunification of Etios Nation and Matuzu Kingdom, believing they should leave the mistakes of their ancestors in the past and become one kingdom again. Such views sicken Hethor and the rest of the royal family, who are desperately trying to steer Kobi's head back in the “right” direction.
Hethor warns Kobi that her pro-Matuzan and fae-friendly antics are dishonoring her father's spirit, but Kobi believes the spirits of all their ancestors will be at peace if she can just end this bloody war once and for all. She courageously risks her life traveling across Serkel with her small band of like-minded rebels, trying to get the attention of Matuzan nobles. She hopes to spread the word and drum up enough support for her cause to create change. If she can get enough nobles from both sides on board, Kobi just may accomplish her goals.
THETOS
Thetos is the illegitimate son of Hethor and Boga. His existence threatens Hethor's role as High Chieftess, as infidelity is grounds for the Etiosi people to overthrow her. Hethor could not bear to kill the boy, and he resembled his father too much to pretend he was sired by one of her husbands. So, she asked her close friend Mutara to raise him in the faraway, allied kingdom of Folkvar.
As far as Thetos knows, Mutara found him abandoned in the forest as a baby. He is not aware that he descends from Etiosi royalty, or that he has any connection to Etios Nation at all. He considers himself a Folkvaran through and through. He lives a sheltered peasant life with Mutara as she teaches him her traditional faunish ways, centering nature and magic. She has even taught Thetos some floramancy spells, but he is still far from an expert.
Thetos was raised to embrace a pacifist, vegetarian lifestyle. He has no knowledge of combat and has never once been in a fight. He has never even slaughtered an animal. Now as he creeps closer to adulthood, he wishes to step outside Mutara's peaceful homestead and experience the real world, however gritty it may be.
Mutara is reluctant to cast him out into the deep end of life, so she agreed to send him to a boarding school in Sodergen for a few years. That way he can experience some independence while still being supervised, and get an education to boot. Thetos wonders how a peasant like Mutara can afford to enroll him in such a prestigious school…could someone be sending her money?
MUTARA
Mutara was born to a native faunish tribe in Alpine Ridge, called the Alses-Kwaa tribe. Though this tribe is technically under Etios Nation's jurisdiction, they have largely been undisturbed and free to practice their ancient ways of life. As a young adult, Mutara grew curious about the Etiosi colonies. Her tribe's population was dropping by the generation and opportunities were running slim, not to mention the local dating pool had shrunk to a dirty puddle. So, Mutara made the long, perilous journey down the mountain in search of a more exciting life.
She encountered many people in her travels, but none more memorable than a minotaur family of 6. The family was made up of three wives, their husband, and two children: a grown son and baby girl. The baby girl's name was Hethor and she was very sick. The family claimed they lost everything when Matuzan forces captured their village, so they were on their way to Etios Capital to start a new life. Mutara had no money to offer them, but she did have experience in alchemy. She was able to brew a remedy that saved their daughter from the brink of death.
The family was so grateful that they invited her to join them at their new homestead. Many years later, Hethor was elected High Chieftess of Etios Nation, and she appointed Mutara as her personal physician. Mutara is one of very few people who knows the truth about Thetos, Hethor's illegitimate son. Hethor entrusted Mutara with the boy's future, asking her to give him a simple life far away in Folkvar Kingdom.
Mutara has been raising Thetos like her own child ever since. He is curious about his parents, and it pains her greatly that she must keep the truth from him. She keeps this secret both for Hethor's sake and his own, for she fears what Chief Denu might do to Thetos if he finds out whose child he really is…
SEE ALSO
Ask: Hethor
Ask: Etios
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